Over two years ago, Stephen began working with two teenage guys, training them weekly in sound reinforcement. We soon found out it was important they learned some other skills, and it just became an apprenticeship. Stephen taught them a variety of things from soldering cables to wrapping cables, from saving files to typing in Burmese, from how starting up a computer to using iCloud. He taught them how to set up speakers and ground a system if you’re getting shocked. He taught them how to run a projector and even to appreciate coffee on long production days!
After just over a year of training, one of The Reinforcers graduated and needed to move on to a full time job. His job in town is every day until six, so he wasn’t able to to work with Stephen anymore. We were down to just one Reinforcer.
We have been looking and considering who we might add into the mix. For this year, we didn’t feel an urgency, and more importantly, didn’t see too many options due to age, maturity, and other factors. Stephen instead focused on Pyint Soe, strengthening the relationship, expanding his skills, and investing in his future.
This year, he’ll be heading into tenth grade, which is the final year of school here. It’s an intense year as the students prepare for Myanmar’s final exam–a six-subject test spread over six full days, with a pass rate of around 30%. Students often have extracurricular study early in the morning and late into the evenings, sometimes over the weekend.
We still aren’t sure how this will play out for Pyint Soe, and we’ll do our best to continue investing in him in the coming year and hopefully further. But it did become clear over this summer that we needed to have another trainee moving in. And thanks to a few projects Stephen has taken on, he’s been able to train Pyint Soe further and cover two weekly salaries!
Enter La Pyint. This is Pyint Soe’s younger brother. {Let me interject here to say this community turns out to be just a few big families. Everyone is everyone’s brother and cousin and auntie.} We’ve known La Pyint since he was six. Now, at fifteen, we both felt like he was at a great place to move into the role. He’s shown so much consistency in the past year, coming to cajon lessons weekly and English lessons once or twice a week. He’s also been increasingly interested in computers and music both.
And since they get along quite well, they were both excited for the collaboration!
Now, they’ll both be attending church with us weekly, continuing to learn and manage the sound system & PowerPoint. They also train one night per week on basic computer skills & typing in Burmese. Currently, Pyint Soe has another day or two a week he works on recording projects with Stephen, which we hope to bring La Pyint into with time.
Both of them are taking intensive English classes with me over the summer, and La Pyint will continue to cajon. Stephen hopes to meet with them monthly for focused mentoring when the school year begins.
And we love them. They are like brothers to us: making us laugh, teasing us, & teaching us. We are getting to know them more and more with each week, and we love that.
And while I was initially skeptical of the name, it’s grown on me. We are loving The Reinforcers and all it’s growing to become! It’s still serving to invest in teenage guys in our community, and perhaps doing so more than we even hoped. We are thrilled that one young man was able to finish high school, and that we have another preparing to graduate in just under a year. We are really hopeful for what the boys are seeing & absorbing; we are hopeful for their futures.
Meet The 2019 Reinforcers.
